Troy Kingi tour to share his desert rock revival

Troy Kingi in the Mojave Desert where he recorded his eighth album at the Rancho De La Luna.

Troy Kingi announced his nationwide tour this week and will play one show at Smash Palace on September 22.

The Rotorua-born musician who lives in Kerikeri will be touring the country with his new album Leatherman & the Mojave Green and his band The Cactus Handshake.

His eighth album is a homecoming of sorts for Kingi, returning to the genre of music that ultimately enticed him into the music industry - rock music.

Inspired in his mid-teens by so many artists who have come from or created in the Mojave Desert regions (Kyuss, QOTSA, Eagles of Death Metal), it was an easy decision for Kingi to record this album in the home of “desert rock” - Joshua Tree, in a studio synonymous with that sound, Rancho De La Luna.

Rancho is run by Dave Catching, a legend in his own right (QOTSA, Eagles of Death Metal, The Mojave Lords) and being entrenched in that environment with such deep folklore and rich rock tapestry, Kingi’s album seemingly formed itself - borrowing sweaty heat from the sandy desert, eclectic melodies from the sunlit mountains, ancient rhythms from sacred caves and a sharp, pointy punch from the Joshua Tree cactus.

In the midst of songwriting, Kingi was asked to write and perform a song with Catching on the forthcoming Rancho De La Luna 30th anniversary album, alongside many of his musical heroes. In addition, he will now be playing shows in Vegas and LA, alongside those same legends.

Troy Kingi is a storyteller - with each album immersed in rich worlds, which inform the writing. Leatherman & the Mojave Green takes us out into the desert, where we hear myriad stories - one in particular talking of the Sunshine Community Cult tattooing their eyeballs, allowing them to stare at the sun and receive its many blessings.

The album was accompanied by a four-part documentary series Troy Kingi’s Desert Hikoi, directed by Tom Hern (The Panthers, The Dark Horse, Guns Akimbo, Shadow in the Clouds), featuring Serj Tankian, Brant Bjork, Dave Catching and many, many more OGs (Original Gangsters) of the Californian rock scene.

Troy Kingi’s Desert Hikoi screened on TVNZ+ on demand in May.

Troy Kingi on his time in the Mojave Desert

“The trip to Joshua Tree was a timely godsend - at a pivotal point where I had hit a wall, a blockage, I was waning, struggling creatively with where to go to next with my music - the whole 10/10/10 thing, had it finally broken me?

“Being in this place - one of the holiest of holies for me, the birthplace of the greatest rock album of all time Songs for the Deaf [Queens of the Stone Age] - it was hard not to be inspired by it all ... by the crazy Martian-like landscape, the people, the foreign-ness - songs started forming in my dreams, rushing to me from the heated horizon.

“I found my thing again - and it seemed to flow easily, like it once did when I first started my journey eight years ago. The sound we found is definitely different. It’s the most aggressive sound I’ve ever created,” says Kingi.